Over the past two years, Copper's right back leg has "given out" somehow from time to time. We can't afford an ACL surgery and he's 8 now. We wrapped it with Vetwrap to give it stability and it has healed the few times it happened.
So over the past week or so I've noticed it's harder for him to jump up on the couch. Tonight he yelped when I tried to pick him up. So it's wrapped up again. He was able then, to jump up on the couch.
Any ideas or suggestions? Do any of you use Glucosamine and if so, what's your opinion of how it works? Would it help him?
Oh we gave him a baby aspirin too...

Is his injury definitely an ACL? Has he been diagnosed with any other type of injury or illness such as arthritis? I know doxies can have spinal issues as they get older.....

We have used Cosequin DS for Katy for the past year or so. Initially, it worked very well, but now we need something stronger for her arthritis. My vet and I are doing research on several different medications/supplements, including the Vetri-Shark that SisMorphine mentioned. I'm going back again next Monday to see what we both have come up with.

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

The first time we noticed it, we brought him right to the vet. She stretched his leg and stuff and said he didn't seem that tender but it could be an ACL injury of some sort. I don't know - is there degrees of it?
He'd jumped over the back seat with the arm up between the front seats - and we speculated his leg got caught. We went to eat lunch, came back and he was limping and not using his leg.
Anyway at that time, wrapping it seemed to help, within 3-4 days he was stable again.
Once we wrapped him last night, he was able to get onto the couch.
He hasn't seemed to show signs of spinal injury that isn't to say he won't...

I think unless you know for sure what it is wrong its hard to know what to suggest? The step might help. Swimming is supposed to be excellent low impact/low injury risk exercise. He's so little that you could swim him in a deep tub! I'd just thought I'd throw those thoughts out there...

If I'm not mistaken Aspirin can really irritate the digestive tract, and I'd also heard it could even cause ulcers, you may want to ask your vet about another option long term...

I've been using the syn flex for Summer for about 3 weeks and I've seen remarkable changes in her. She doesn't seem stiff at all. She's been running around like a young dog, it's great. I'd definatly try it with him and see what you think.

It won't hurt, in fact even if it doesn't help that one specific injury you'll notice an overall difference if you try the glucosimine/chondroitin supplements. I also have Wrigley (hip dysplasia) on Adequan once a month & that has helped tremendously.

However, stay off the aspirin. If he seems to be in severe pain, a baby aspirin once a day for 3 days is ok, but is NOT a long-term pain reliever. There are better canine drugs made for long term pain relief (Deramaax, Metacam, etc.) that help better without the side effects that aspirin can have. There's also a newer product out there that is shown to have even fewer side effects than the 2 I mentioned & we have a vet using it on her dog with great success (no diarrhea, etc.) so let me get the name of it for you as well.

As for the jumping, I think it's time to invest in a doggie ramp or doggie stairs for your pooch. Even on his good days he doesn't need to be jumping around on that leg.

Miakoda wrote:There's also a newer product out there that is shown to have even fewer side effects than the 2 I mentioned & we have a vet using it on her dog with great success (no diarrhea, etc.) so let me get the name of it for you as well.

I'd love to hear more about this new product as well!

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

Thanks you guys.
We got to thinking about it and we walked ALOT on Saturday at the Pet Fair. He did get really tired. I'm thinking it was overuse of his limbs which aren't that great to begin with. He looks as if he'd had surgery at some point before we got him. He's got lines like fine scars down each back leg on the front side.
ANYway today we went out and about and each time we picked him up to move him (gently even) he cried out in pain. I'm confused about the source of the pain and we'll take him in but until we can get in to the office, we gave him 10mg of Prednisone and will repeat that tonight. (he's about 18lbs.)
A stair step is probably a really good idea, we'll see what we can do in that department. He uses a footstool to the cedar chest to the bed, at night to get in our bed. Right now he's laying on the floor on one of the pillows Katcha made for us We'll let you know what the vet says. I'm thinking they are going to have to X-ray stuff

yvette, i haven't posted because i was afraid to since copper's problem might not be the same as jimmiedean's . . . but here goes . . .

JD was my ex's dachshund and he had what my ex called knee or hip issues for a while . . . every once in a while his leg would "go out" and he'd limp or whatever. then it got pronounced for a few days, then he started to really have issues jumping. at first we thought it was becuase his leg hurt, so we'd just pick him up so he didn't have to jump.

but one day my ex went to pick him up and he yelped in pain . . . and that happened a few more times. and then his other leg started to seem to mysteriously hurt him . . . so i took him to the vet and they tried to treat him for leg pain with rimadyl. we did that for a couple of weeks.

but then he started to really lose proper mobility and deteriorated till he could not hold his weight properly on his back legs. i finally took him to a specialist after 3 visits to our regular vet, who kept prescribing pain killers.

the specialist knew enough about dachshunds to immediately get film on his spine, and sure enough, jimmiedean had popped a disc . . .

so please just make sure your vet is familiar with the symptoms of dachshund back diseases. the symptoms can be unassuming and it's better to catch it early so you can treat it less invasively! the surgery and the surgery recovery are AWFUL.

i'm not saying your vet doesn't know what she's talking about or that i think copper has jimmiedean's problem . . . but i'm posting cuz the thing that finally got me to take jimmiedean to the specialist was reading posts by pocketpit and another person on PBF encouraging me to get a second opinion on his problem.

Thanks so much for your input. It sure sounds like what could be wrong. I will call around and find a good doc for doxies.
You know, we gave him that prednisone and tonight we got home and he was doing zoomies, where today, he was just pooped out and didn't want to move.

make sure to mention to the vet about the Pred so he can suggest a dose or a reducing dose to get him off it.
I think you need to do that??
The aspirin and the Pred can be a deadly combination, I would make sure you feed him with each dose of Pred and do not give any aspirin again. I saw a dog who was dieing and it basically stemmed from him taking Pred for his skin and aspirin for his aches for quite some time (either they failed to mention it to their reg. DVM about the one med. or he missed it). Both can cause gastric irritation, ulcers, and other serious complications when combined.

There are, strangely, lots of dogs with back problems, especially doxies, I've seen quite a few of those in just my 6 months at the ER hosp.

I agree with exray, spine issues can cause all sorts of pain all over the place, and xrays can be an excellent diagnostic tool.

We d/c'ed the aspirin after the one evening, and were going to do a prednisone "burst" that is, 20mg day 1, 10mg day 2 and 5mg day 3. But I don't think I'll use it again anyway, we gave him 10mg. day one and I am going to wait and see. He feels better today.
The trick is going to be finding someone in this area who knows doxies more than your average vet. And my vet will be offended if I ask...I'll have to call around today.

well if you decide to go the xray route, a slipped or ruptured or damaged disk could be hard for a vet to miss, so you might not need to find a doxie-experienced vet for that part.

but if there IS a damaged disk, the best thing to do would be to find a vet that does have experience with doxie back disease because they will know which courses of treatment have the best successes for the injury . . . like, will he need steroids or can you try accupuncture or are you looking at surgery down the road.

there is a decent dachshund bulletin board where you might be able to get more info/referrals . . . http://dachsie.org/vbb/

i visited this board and a couple of others when jimmiedean was having problems, and the folks there shared some good info with me!